Turkey to produce coal from domestic resources

“Turkey has opened seven large coalfields to private investors with the aim of reducing the country's current account deficit, which had been negatively impacted by energy imports”, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister in Ankara Fatih Dönmez said at the handover ceremony between the private sector and the Turkish Hardcoal Authority (TTK) and the Turkish Coal Enterprises Institution (TKI), Caspian Energy News (www.caspianenergy.net) reports with reference to the press statement of AK Party (The Justice and Development Party).

Turkey will launch a new model to transfer coal licenses from public corporations to the private sector to increase domestic coal production through new technology using more efficient extraction methods, Fatih Donmez said.

Turkey has a production area consisting of 203 million tons of coal, double the current reserve volume, which when produced will generate almost $12 billion in total revenue, Donmez said.

In 2017, Turkey imported 37 million tons of coal, which cost $4 billion.

“The production increase will generate $3.5 billion in public revenue, will replace $4.2 billion worth of coal imports, and will indirectly contribute to the decrease in our current deficit,” he said.

With the anticipated new investments, Turkey will produce 19 million tons of coal from domestic resources, Donmez said.